“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” In that quote from Shakespeare, Hamlet addresses his friend Horatio. Horatio feels, astounded by the things going on around them in the play. Now, Shakespeare is not scripture, but, in that quote we can recognize echoes, similarities of how God responds to Job in our passage today. It gives us a, concise reference, to begin understanding God’s response to Job.
Today, we hear from God for the first time since the opening section of the entire book, 35 chapters ago. 35 chapters. 35 chapters of Job demanding answers and justice and “friends” offering “advice” but really just ripping into Job. 35 chapters of soap box speeches and words upon never ending windy words. Last week in the scripture, Job demanded that God at least give heed to him and this week, God does. But, probably, not in the way Job wanted.
God speaks to Job out of a whirlwind, reminiscent of God speaking from the clouds on top of Mt. Sinai in Exodus, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.” God proceeds to ask Job, how the foundation of the earth was laid, what power Job has to command lighting and clouds, if he put wisdom into the hearts and minds of humanity, and if he can feed the hungry lion or raven. Job has spent 35 chapters basing his claims and demands on mistaken knowledge and now, God illustrates just how little Job does know. Job and his “friends” were under the flawed assumption that wickedness is always punished and righteousness is always rewarded, the assumption that bad things only happen to bad people. For the friends, that perspective meant berating Job for how evil Job clearly had been since he lost his health, his children, and his livestock. For Job, that perspective meant regretting his birth and demanding answers. Job knew how the world worked, and since he was righteous and did not deserve what happened to him God had better make an account. And God’s reply is, Really, you think you know how the world works?
Now, I must confess that at this point, I really want to yell at God. Cut Job some slack, give him a break, hasn’t he been through enough? However, God responding the way God does is the only thing that snaps Job out of his spiral. Job was spinning deeper and deeper, almost frantic. Job needed to hear that he didn’t know everything and his understanding of the world itself was inherently limited, and maybe we need to hear those words too.
We live in a world where we have answers to things like why the sky is blue and what is the average air speed velocity of a European swallow. We have so many answers to so many things that we expect to have neat, tidy, precise answers for everything. But we don’t. We are limited in our knowledge. The apostle Paul knew that. Just under 2000 years ago he wrote to the church at Corinth,“ 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly,[b] but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
We are unique amongst all creation, made in God’s own image, but we are still created. We are not God. We cannot know everything. Now, on its own, hearing about the limits of our knowledge could feel very defeating, and thankfully God doesn’t stop there. God does more than simply highlight Job’s lack of wisdom and understanding. God also offers hope and love. How does the passage I just read from Corinthians end? “Even as I have been fully known.” True, we don’t know how God laid the foundations of the earth and we cannot number the clouds, and that is ok because we have a God who affirms four things: that God is God, that God created us, God cares for us, and that God is here.
God’s corrective speech is not because Job dared to cry out or demand justice. Expressing lament, frustration, and sorrow are faithful responses to what we experience in life. There are times when we should rally against injustice and we are even called to work towards a world where justice rolls down like water. But after 35 chapters, Job is anchored in his own flawed understandings of the world and isn’t crying out for God’s justice. Job isn’t demanding justice according to God but justice according to Job. Here, God calls Job out not for generally lamenting his circumstances but for demanding justice on human terms and imposing those human terms on God.
One scholar put it this way, “Elusive no more, the Lord speaks to Job at last. Job has poured his heart out, shaking his fist toward heaven, defending his integrity, challenging the pious orthodoxy espoused by his comforters, all the while making his case for the world according to Job.” At the beginning of chapter 32 even his windy friends have nothing left to say because Job is so “righteous in his own eyes.” What started as an authentic cry of pain and suffering twisted into self-righteous demands based out of faulty assumptions about when and why we experience suffering. God’s words tell Job, you have inherently limited understandings of how the world works, and those words also affirm that we don’t have to be God, because God already is. God is God. God is creator, provider, sustainer, power, and wisdom. God helps the raven and the lion, not Job. God put the wisdom we do have within us, not Job. God created the world, not Job, and not us. That truth, that we are not God, is absolutely freeing and liberating. We aren’t supposed to have all the answers or carry the weight of our pain, sorrow, and suffering all by ourselves.
God’s response to Job takes up about four and a half chapters. In those chapters God goes into sometimes great detail about lions and ravens, about rain, stars, and clouds, about deer, mountain goats, donkeys, oxen, horses, ostriches, and hawks, about strong and mighty beasts named Behemoth and Leviathan. So much detail, so much attention, and so much care for all of creation. Part of chapter 38 reads this, “who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?— 9 when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,” Such beautiful imagery of a caring and nurturing God who birthed and swaddled creation itself. And all of that attention and care God pours out on creation, God also pours upon us. At the end of Chapter 40 there are five little words, easy to miss, but that say so much. In chapter 40 God says, “Look at Behemoth, which I made just as I made you.”
God reminds Job, hey, I made, nurture, and love you just like I do the starts and the lion and the raven. We are created by God and loved and cared for by God just as much as the rest of creation. In the same section I referred to earlier, where Paul writes about knowing only in part, Paul also lifts up God’s enduring love. It’s actually one of the most famous passages from 1st Corinthians. It opens with “Love never ends” and closes with, “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” The pain and sorrow we feel often masks, often overwhelms the reality and truth of God’s love for us and we feel angry, alone, and forsaken. But no matter what, no matter how separate we feel, we are created, we are powerfully and wonderfully made, and we are loved and cared for.
Amidst everything else going on in our passage today, the words God uses, what God is trying to teach Job, we can’t overlook that simple fact that God does speak. That God does address Job. One commentary put it this way, “For all of our seeming inconsequence, we are the ones to whom God has spoken, the ones to whom God holds out the promise of conversation about the design of creation.” Yes, in many ways God is mystery and we know only in part while here on earth, but God does respond to Job. God, who is God of all creation where there are hungry lions, starving ravens, and people in pain all over the world, God responds to Job. God was there at the beginning and laid the foundation of the earth and is here now, tending to lion, raven, ox, ostrich, behemoth, leviathan, and us.
In the words of the Gospel of Matthew, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” God is here.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy, might echo God’s response to Job, but Shakespeare’s words are little consolation in the face of suffering and difficulty. Which is why I am thankful the book of Job goes a step further than Hamlet. Pain, suffering, difficulties, and sorrow are real and do not have cut and dry answers. But the good news, is that we are not left alone in an ocean of mystery. We are not abandoned at the edge of human understanding. God looks at us and says, there are limits to your knowledge, and that’s ok, because no matter what happens in life, even when life is hard, I am with you, even until the end of the age. Whatever your week brings, remind yourself, make time, find ways to hold the Good News close: God created you. God cares for you. God loves you. God is with you. Amen.